Tag Archives: partnerships

Ben Cameron, Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Ruby Lerner, Creative Capital’s President & Founding Director

Ruby Lerner: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me, Ben! A bit of background, before we get started: In 2011, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation asked Creative Capital to partner with them to launch and oversee the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards Program (DDPAA), which announced its third class of awardees yesterday. I know that we’re both so excited to begin working with this extraordinary roster of artists. We talked about the birth of DDPAA in an interview for this blog back in April 2012, so we thought it would be interesting to do a “Part Two” now about what has been learned over the past few years working together to bring the program to life. We had a similar discussion on a session at last year’s Grantmakers in the Arts conference in Philadelphia.

Thinking back on the initial vision for the DDPAA program, what do you think the biggest changes have been (if any) to adapt the program to the needs of the artists? Continue reading →

We’re very pleased to announce that Taller Puertorriqueño in Philadelphia will be a new Professional Development Program partner this April, when we will host a Spanish-language workshop there.

In exploring their website, it’s clear how dedicated Taller is to enriching the lives of the Latino community in Philadelphia, and we’re delighted to become a part of their mission! Their site describes the evolution of Taller as an institution, explaining that it’s grown from “a grassroots, Puerto Rican graphic arts community center to a respected institution that celebrates the arts of Puerto Rico, Latin America and the Caribbean. Providing an outlet for neighborhood children and youth, by providing after-school activities and programming rich in artistic and cultural discipline, remains central to the organization’s ongoing work.”

Last weekend, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, along with Citizens for Florida Arts, Inc. partnered with Creative Capital to offer a Professional Development Workshop to 24 artists from across the state of Florida who work in a variety of disciplines. This intensive two and a half days were a crash course in self-management, strategic planning, fundraising and promotion. The full weekend of lectures, peer critiques, one-on-one consultations and interactive exercises took place in the beautiful University Gallery and nearby classrooms at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Ken Gonzales-Day (2012 Visual Arts) is one of the Creative Capital grantees whose work is featured on the GIA website.

Throughout November and December, the Grantmakers in the Arts website photo banner will feature artists supported by Creative Capital! For a feature on their blog, the GIA staff asked us to tell them what we’re excited about right now. This is what we shared about trends that we are seeing in the field, the evolution of our approach to artist services, and what’s in store for Creative Capital in 2013:

Here at Creative Capital, we are currently in the panel review stage of our grant selection process for artists in Emerging Fields, Literature, and Performing Arts. In January, we will announce the 46 projects in our 2013 class of grantees, bringing the number of projects we’ve funded to 418, representing over 500 artists. One of the things we’ve seen in our last grant application round is that, more than ever, artists are breaking the boundaries of artistic disciplines in their work and stretching the definition of what would even be considered art. This is very exciting and reminds us that artists are innovators in the truest sense of the word. They cross disciplines and move our society forward, just like innovators in the sciences and the tech sector. We at Creative Capital feel strongly that it is our job to invest in artists who take risks with their work, creating critical cultural capital. Continue reading →

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) has been a major supporter of Creative Capital’s core grantmaking program since 2000, and has been the largest single funder of all our classes of Performing Arts grantees. DDCF is also the lead funder of the MAP Fund, an ancillary program of Creative Capital, and recently selected Creative Capital to partner with them to launch and oversee the new Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards Program, which announced its first class of grantees today. This program offers significant funding—up to $275,000 per selected artist—that is not tied to individual projects and is instead available for extended professional and artistic development, audience development and retirement planning. Creative Capital’s President & Executive Director, Ruby Lerner, sat down with Ben Cameron, DDCF’s Program Director for the Arts, to talk about this exciting new program and the partnership between Creative Capital and DDCF.

Ruby Lerner: This partnership to launch the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards (DDPAA) is an extraordinary expansion on our long-standing relationship, and it’s an honor for Creative Capital that DDCF would entrust such an important program to us. Why did DDCF choose Creative Capital as a partner?

Ben Cameron: As you know, all of us at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation have long admired the work of Creative Capital. We have been especially moved by Creative Capital’s ability to work with artists on an individually tailored basis, responding to each unique set of artistic needs; the way in which your organization listens to its grantees; its responsive, rather than proscriptive, orientation; and the value it places on learning. Panelists we have gathered over the years to review funding applications from Creative Capital have consistently described your work as “transformative philanthropy”—words that perfectly encapsulate our own hopes with this program. Your openness to learn, to evolve and to adapt as you learn more perfectly align with the learning adventure that we know lies ahead with this program. Continue reading →

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